{"product_id":"parentator-memoirs-of-remarkables-in-the-life-and-the-death-of-the-ever-memorable-dr-increase-mather-who-expired-august-23-1723","title":"Parentator: Memoirs of Remarkables in the Life and the Death of the Ever-Memorable Dr. Increase Mather, Who Expired August 23, 1723","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTitle:\u003c\/b\u003e Parentator: Memoirs of Remarkables in the Life and the Death of the Ever-Memorable Dr. Increase Mather, Who Expired August 23, 1723\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Mather, Cotton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublication:\u003c\/b\u003e Boston: Printed by B. Green for Nathaniel Belknap, at the corner of Scarlets-Wharff, 1724.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDescription:\u003c\/b\u003e First edition of Puritan minister Cotton Mather's biography of his father Increase Mather, one of colonial New England's most influential clergymen, who advised the governor of Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials. Includes a bibliography of Increase Mather's works. Headpieces and decorated initials. Bound in later full red goatskin leather, covers gilt with fillet frames and floral cornerpieces, spine with five raised bands and gilt in compartments with foliate cornerpieces around a central fleuron, turn-ins gilt with a decorative roll, marbled endpapers. 6.75 x 4.5 inches; [2], X, xiv, 239, [5] pages. Final leaf (advertisement and errata) wanting. Binding with light soiling, interior with moderate toning and damp-staining. Good in a Very Good+ binding. From the collection of Arthur Williams Hall (1873-1952) of Massachusetts, bibliophile and manufacturer of laboratory equipment, with his acquisition and bibliographical notes in pencil on the front free endpaper; thence by descent through three generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \"Parentator\" Cotton Mather pays tribute to his father while offering his life as an exemplar of Puritan faith. One chapter of the biography recounts the Salem witch trials and defends Increase for his actions, noting that Increase helped to stop the trials and attacking critics of the Mathers (pp. 161-9). The truth is, of course, more complicated than Cotton contends, as Increase is known to have vacillated between support and discouragement of the trials. This copy is without the portrait of Increase, but Holmes notes that \"the engraved frontispiece portraits...found in various copies of Parentator are not alike, and seem not to have been published as a part of the original work. They appear to have been added to special copies, either at the time of publication, or since.\" Scarce; we find no other copies in commerce at time of cataloging. Reference: Holmes, T.J. Cotton Mather, 271.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Head to Tail Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54327097590073,"sku":"000657","price":1000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0752\/2697\/2473\/files\/000657_1.jpg?v=1786658375","url":"https:\/\/headtotailbooks.com\/products\/parentator-memoirs-of-remarkables-in-the-life-and-the-death-of-the-ever-memorable-dr-increase-mather-who-expired-august-23-1723","provider":"Head to Tail Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}